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Great advice for Hillary Clinton
Hillary should denounce racism
I thought this was the best piece of punditry of the 2008 campaign season, offered last night by David Gergen, who mainly served Republicans but who worked briefly in the Clinton White House. It came last night on CNN with Anderson Cooper (via Nexis):
GERGEN: And it also raises the question in my judgment of whether she shouldn't say, you know, if you want to vote against him because he's black, I don't want your vote. I don't want to win that way. This has no place in this primary.
COOPER: Do you see her saying that?
GERGEN: Well, she has been a champion -- she's been a champion of civil rights for a long, long time. She and her husband both have I think well-earned reputations in the civil rights front. She's never had redneck votes before in her life.
I see no reason why she couldn't take the high road here in the closing days of his campaign and try to take this on and take on the Reverend Wright issue to say, "Look, I campaigned with this fellow for 15 months. I know a lot of you people don't think he shares your values that somehow Barack thinks like Reverend Wright. Not true. I know him. I have been with him. And race should come out of this."
I think she could do a lot by taking a high road.
Barring a late scandal, I don't see how Clinton gains the nomination, so why not play for the history books, and create some goodwill that might lead somewhere a couple years down the road? Such a speech would go a long way toward that.